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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26985022">You Were My Sunshine</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MindscapeWish/pseuds/MindscapeWish'>MindscapeWish</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Gravity Falls</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Transcendence (Gravity Falls), Gen, Heavy Angst, no happy ending, violin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 22:43:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,084</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26985022</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MindscapeWish/pseuds/MindscapeWish</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dipper faces the one thing he knew was fast coming for a long time: Mabel's death. He's held up strong in the face of the triplets and family, but when he's faced with speaking at Mabel's memorial, he finally breaks.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dipper Pines &amp; Mabel Pines</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>2020 Transcendence AU Zine Writing Entries</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>You Were My Sunshine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is featured in the Transcendence AU Zine!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>August 14, 2116.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The sun peeked out over the tall, swaying evergreens and pines against the blue, cloudless sky. Birds chirped along to each other in the trees, squirrels scrittered from branch to branch, and the occasional gnome attempted to catch one for a much needed bath. A breeze passed through the forest, sweeping up stray pixies and ruffling the hair of anyone outside.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was a good day.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It </span>
  <em>
    <span>should</span>
  </em>
  <span> have been a good day. The only thing stopping Gravity Falls from experiencing a good day was the deep, bruising ache and sorrow blanketing over the town. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Every child heard a whining in the back of their head, their heart taken into a fist and pulled. They burst into wails.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Every adult felt the suffocation of loss, colors lost to monochrome, and a sense of hopeless failure. They swallowed down their coffee and flip to that morning’s newspaper, attempting to ignore the thing throbbing in their bones that they cannot shove away. Parents tended to their sobbing children, wondering bitterly to themselves if their child could feel it too.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Alcor the Dreambender-- no, Dipper Pines -- blinked and looked back down from the sky, eyes falling on the numerous chairs set up on the front lawn of what used to be the Mystery Shack, now turned Stanley Pines Memorial Library of the Supernatural.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was a little funny-- a bittersweet funny, that is. Perhaps irony. If Dipper chose to ignore the dread and weight pressing on his shoulders, he could have mistaken this for a wedding. After all, that’s what it looked like-- chairs with brightly colored, glittered and bedazzled backings were filed in straight lines with a single pathway between them. Little to no decorations were set up, but the fresh flowers attached to the sides of each folding chair were enough.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The pathway led to the old, dirtied porch, where Stan’s old podium stood. Next to that was a display board. Stuck to it via magnets were pictures of a brunette woman, her beam full of braces in younger pictures but disappearing in her teenage years. Pictures of her growing older, of her holding her children, of her holding her grandchildren sidled up next to ones of her as a baby.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A dark blue vase with bright yellow sunflowers painted on stood on a small table at the foot of the board, perfectly haloed and surrounded by the pictures. Each one was a memory trapped within physical evidence, stained in ink. Above the vase read the words: “In loving memory of Mabel Pines. 1999-2116. Adored by many.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was not a wedding.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was not a wedding, but as Dipper, Acacia, Hank, and their children were setting up and planning for the memorial, they knew treating this as a reminiscence rather than complete sadness would honor Mabel’s memory best. So, they made things as bright as could be, just like she’d want them to be.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>People -- men, women, and monsters alike -- arrived and filled the seats one by one. When Dipper looked out the window from inside, the frown on his face deepened. No matter how much he tried to fool himself, the mournful black every guest was dressed in pounded the fact back into his head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mabel Pines was dead. His sister, his twin, his </span>
  <em>
    <span>Mystery</span>
  </em>
  <span> twin, was dead.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dipper was surprised, honestly, that he hadn’t broken down completely already. He’d cried, locked himself in the Mindscape at night, but he hadn’t imploded yet since he’d been with the rest of his family during the last week. The only thing that held him together was the fact that he needed to be put together for Acacia, Hank, and their children.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Yet even that was cracking.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Hank, a knowing expression on his face. “It’s time,” he murmured. “We should get out there.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dipper swallowed and nodded, throat tightening. He didn’t want to go outside and face everyone, face what happened, because that meant that it... Well. It happened. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But people were waiting and Mabel deserved to be honored. So, Dipper stood and followed Hank outside. The last of the guests were sitting down when Dipper stepped right up behind the podium. He looked out at the small crowd gathered in the grass, grim expressions painted on each face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Not many people, at least compared to how many lives Mabel had touched through her preter advocacy, bubbly personality, and loving nature, had gathered there. Their childhood friends and family had already passed, leaving their kids, her own children, and their kids to be able to show up. In the very back stood the Multibear, a small red-hatted gnome who looked like he’d seen better days (Jeff), and Gompers.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In the front rows, the immediate family sat. Hank eased himself down, joints cracking painfully, in a chair next to his son Rowan. Acacia held her daughter Josefa’s hand.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thank you,” Dipper started, willing his voice not to crack, “for joining us here today to honor the memory of my sister Mabel. She would have been overjoyed to see you all here, regardless of circumstance.” He took a deep breath, allowing himself to twiddle his clawed thumbs for some type of comfort.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Mabel was always seeing the bright, unseeable-except-to-bees colors in life. Glitter was her number one best friend and snack-- no matter how many times I’ve told her that’s unhealthy.” Dipper heard a small laugh from the back and, just for a second, he felt his bottom lip wobble into a small smile. “Taking the time to gather here simply to mourn would not be in her wishes...”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>It doesn’t matter what she wants anymore</span>
  </em>
  <span>,’ whispered his mind.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So let us celebrate who she was, who she became, and who she will live on to be.” Dipper looked at Acacia and Hank. “Would anyone like to share stories of her?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Acacia and Hank stood and made their way up to the podium, allowing Dipper to step aside and watch. He listened to their shared memories of their mother, her character, and the important things that made Mabel, </span>
  <em>
    <span>Mabel</span>
  </em>
  <span>. It was halfway through their prepared speech that Dipper lost track of where they were, engulfed by his own memories.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dipper, when he first arrived at Gravity Falls 104 years ago, hadn’t expected anything interesting. It had simply been a place they were shipped off to for the summer, and once school came close, they’d be sent back to California like nothing happened. He had been somewhat okay with that, because at least he had Mabel at his side.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>How </span>
  <em>
    <span>so wrong</span>
  </em>
  <span> he had been. It was a wonder, perhaps a destiny, that he had found the journal. Each page in it brought a new mystery, expanding his perception, his curiosity, making him feel so alive... It was only proper to solve a mystery with Mabel.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Even when things had gone to hell, when the day rained out, a hunt went wrong, or nothing good was on TV and he was in a bad mood, Mabel radiated infectious sunshine and rainbows that overrode everything else. She was his anchor and he was hers too.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She’d wake him up early in the mornings by jumping on the beds, dump plastic dinosaurs into a pitcher and call it Mabel Juice; she’d bend over backwards to help the ones she loved and she fought with all her heart for what she believed in. She’d throw herself into her work and her art, full of determination, and come out of it victorious. If she hadn’t, she found her way around it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dipper, staring off into space, cracked a small smile at the memory of her jumping around and dancing when she first discovered a way to summon him to the physical plane with just a Snickers bar. The first thing Mabel did was hug him </span>
  <em>
    <span>so tight</span>
  </em>
  <span> that it made all the tears, terror, and confusion of his death (and demonic resurrection) vanish in a second. The warmth of her arms around him, body pressed against his for the first time in so long, pieced back together his fractured soul. He had cried tears of joy, relief of finally feeling something again, being able to have something normal returned to him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mabel... Mabel was magic like that. She had always been magic in her own way, a lightbulb in the midst of darkness, lighting the path of those weary or beaten. Her soul and aura had been nothing short of luminous, glowing, and magnificent. There was nothing that could stop her from shining, inside and out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He’d never be able to see her spark again. He’d never be able to feel her hug for the rest of time.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dipper didn’t notice Vierna, one of Soos’s children, looking at him in concern. He hadn’t noticed the golden tears starting to slide down his cheeks either. The only thing Dipper felt was a crippling, heart clenching pain, stomach turning in nausea and filling with dread.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He hurt. He hurt so much and he was cracking, but how could Dipper stay kept together at the memorial of the only person who had kept him truly, humanly, alive? How could he not break for his lost lifeline, for the most important person in existence?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dipper was yanked from his thoughts when he felt the tugging of teeth at his pant leg. He looked down with a start to see Gompers chewing on the expensive fabric.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Damn goat.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I believe that Alc- Dipper had planned a piece for today in Mabel’s memory,” Multibear spoke, eyeing him carefully. He was evaluating if Dipper could actually do this, hold himself together a little longer. The Multibear had known Dipper for many, many years, and there was a sense of personal understanding between them that came with that time.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dipper wiped away the tears from his face hastily with the back of his sleeve and nodded. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Pull yourself together. Just a little while longer.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>From thin air, Dipper summoned a violin and bow. The instrument was of pre-Transcendence age, and even then it was older, the polished wood a deep maroon-brown and hazel. The fingerboard and chin rest were pitch black as ebony, strings sleek and silver, and the bow had black hair instead of white, though its use was evident because of the white, dusty rosin covering it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He took the Multibear’s place at the front, the guests that were whispering comforting words to each other eventually hushing down quietly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dipper raised the violin up and tucked it beneath his chin, arms shaking. If he hadn’t used a shoulder rest, it would have toppled from his grasp. He positioned his fingers, now clawless, at his starting note. His thumb tucked at the frog of his bow, fingers elegantly stretched around the grip. One sharp, deep breath later, and Dipper placed the bow on the string.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dipper pulled it across, sound vibrating within the violin’s body and projecting to his audience. You Are My Sunshine was one of Mabel’s favorite songs, having sung it to her triplets when they were babies. It was only fitting to play it now as a goodbye, a testament to happy times long past.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The first verse kept its spritely, happy tune, fingers dancing across the board. They landed in all the right spots, rocked in excellently practiced vibrato, rhythm staccatoed and upbeat.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As the verses went on, Dipper couldn’t stop his sadness from pouring into the music. The more he played, the more memories flooded in, the more sad the notes sounded. What was once a loving, bright melody became a grim, sorrowful lamentation, long and slow.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dipper couldn’t take it anymore. The dam was breaking, everyone’s auras were so </span>
  <em>
    <span>sad</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Mabel’s smiling face in the pictures felt more of a taunt of failure than reminiscing her youth.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He shook, bow never wavering, his breathing was hitched, and-- </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He broke.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The last note of the song was never played, Dipper collapsing. The violin dropped onto the wood with a thwang as he fell to his knees. Suddenly, he was a scared twelve year old boy grieving the heavy loss of his sister. Of his best friend.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dipper-- Alcor-- sobbed, crumpled in the grass. There was nothing he could do now... </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>All he, human and demon alike, could do was wail.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>You were my sunshine, my only sunshine.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>You made me happy when skies were gray.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>You never knew, dear, how much I loved you...</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, they took my sunshine away.</span>
  </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>And here we are, folks. I've been sitting on this pile of angst since March, and now that the zine is officially published (and up for download at transcendence-zine on tumblr), I can release it!</p>
<p>I have an accompanying violin example of Alcor's little downfall here, featured in the zine itself, played by yours truly.</p>
<p>Let me know what you think in the comments!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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